Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 232

Here is the situation as it stands on Thursday, October 13.

Diplomacy

• Three-quarters of the 193-member General Assembly of the United Nations voted to condemn Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of four partially occupied regions in Ukraine and urged countries not to recognise the move.
• US President Joe Biden said he believe that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would not order the use of a tactical nuclear weapon, but criticised him for playing with the idea.
• More than 50 Western countries met in Brussels to pledge more weapons for Ukraine, especially air defence systems, after Russia launched its most intense missile barrage since the war began.
• Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet for talks in Kazakhstan later on Thursday during which Ankara is likely to raise ideas for peace in Ukraine, a Kremlin aide said.

Fighting

• Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv. A five-storey residential building was hit, the two upper floors destroyed, and the rest were under rubble with rescuers working on the site, said Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich.
• At least seven people were killed and eight injured in a Russian attack on a crowded market in the front-line town of Avdiivka, Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region’s Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
• Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested eight suspects, including Russians and Ukrainians, over Saturday’s blast on the Kerch Bridge in Crimea.
• Top US general Mark Milley condemned Russian missile attacks on Ukraine that killed civilians, suggesting they met the definition of war crimes under the international rules of war.

Economy

• Ukraine needs about $55bn – $38bn to cover next year’s estimated budget deficit and $17bn to start to rebuild critical infrastructure, including schools, housing and energy facilities – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
• Putin said Moscow was ready to resume gas supplies to the European Union via a link of the Germany-bound Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea, but Berlin quickly rejected the offer.
• The US and its Western allies are still discussing where to set the price for a capping mechanism meant to punish Russia for its invasion while keeping its crude on the global market, US Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen said, adding that a Russian oil price cap in the $60 range would allow Moscow some profit.
• Amid soaring energy prices and cost of living, Europe is turning to Africa for gas as an alternative to Russia as a new liquefied natural gas project off Africa’s western coast may only be 80 percent complete, but already the prospect of a new energy supplier has drawn visits from the leaders of Poland and Germany.